James Kwak

James Kwak, an associate professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law, is co-author of White House Burning: The Founding Fathers, Our National Debt, and Why It Matters to You.
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James Kwak is an associate professor at the University of Connecticut School of Law and the co-author of 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown. He blogs at The Baseline Scenario and tweets at @JamesYKwak.
No Deal: Why Last Week Might Have Killed Deficit Reduction for the Year

No Deal: Why Last Week Might Have Killed Deficit Reduction for the Year

Recent votes in the House show how difficult it will be to deal with our long-term deficit problem. Things are unlikely to get better anytime soon. More »

Why Obamacare's Critics Put Budgets Before Families

Why Obamacare's Critics Put Budgets Before Families

President Obama's health care reform turns two this week. It's an imperfect law, but Republican alternatives cut health care spending solely by shifting expenses from government budget to family budgets More »

Why Is the GOP Suddenly Turning Against College?

Why Is the GOP Suddenly Turning Against College?

Rick Santorum called universities "indoctrination mills." Mitt Romney told a student that government shouldn't pay for the education of lower-income kids. How did it come to this? More »

Mitt Romney's Tax Plan Is a Mathematical Disaster

Mitt Romney's Tax Plan Is a Mathematical Disaster

There are two possible outcomes of the candidate's proposal to cut taxes by 20 percent: Either the deficit explodes or the rich pay much more. More »

Special Taxes for Special Wealth: Why Is Investment Income Different?

Special Taxes for Special Wealth: Why Is Investment Income Different?

The investment wealth of Mitt Romney and Mark Zuckerberg is impressive and uncommon. But it doesn't necessarily deserve such uncommon treatment in our tax code. More »

Citizens United v. FEC Turns 2—and It's Still Wrong

Citizens United v. FEC Turns 2—and It's Still Wrong

The anniversary of the landmark Citizens United case is tomorrow, and the evidence still suggests that we can't trust corporate political spending More »

Hey, Washington: We Don't Have to Overhaul Medicare to Save It

Hey, Washington: We Don't Have to Overhaul Medicare to Save It

Republicans and some Democrats claim that we have to radically change Medicare because we can't afford it. They're wrong on both counts. More »

Too Big to Stop: Why Big Banks Keep Getting Away With Breaking the Law

Too Big to Stop: Why Big Banks Keep Getting Away With Breaking the Law

For the country's biggest financial institutions, it's always worth it to break the law, because the government has no way to make the banks pay for acting illegally More »

The Supercommittee's Failure Was 2 Decades in the Making

The Supercommittee's Failure Was 2 Decades in the Making

Newt Gingrich, Grover Norquist, and the GOP had a master plan to turn the U.S. into a low-tax, small-government society back in 1994, they would be ahead of schedule today. More »

The Shameless Republican Race to Cut Rich People's Taxes

The Shameless Republican Race to Cut Rich People's Taxes

Rick Perry and Herman Cain have made tax plans that would make millionaires vastly richer while raising taxes on the middle class. It's voodoo economics gift-wrapped for rich voters. More »

Occupy Wall Street's Top Priority Should Be to Kill the Bush Tax Cuts

Occupy Wall Street's Top Priority Should Be to Kill the Bush Tax Cuts

Letting the tax cuts die is not a panacea, but a first step toward a making more progressive policies possible. More »

House of Cronies: Is Freddie Mac Incompetent or Corrupt?

House of Cronies: Is Freddie Mac Incompetent or Corrupt?

It's becoming clear that Freddie Mac offered Bank of America a sweetheart deal in a case that suggests something worse than ignorance. More »

One Thing Can Stop Corporations From Buying the 2012 Election: Transparency

One Thing Can Stop Corporations From Buying the 2012 Election: Transparency

We must require companies to reveal how much money they are spending and where it's going. More »

Steve Jobs's Law: Why Founders Make the Best Leaders

Steve Jobs's Law: Why Founders Make the Best Leaders

Steve Jobs is unique, but one lesson we can take from his story is more universal. The first executive often makes for the best executive. More »

Hey, Rick Perry: Printing Money Is Patriotic

Hey, Rick Perry: Printing Money Is Patriotic

Printing money isn't "treason." It's Ben Bernanke's job. And it's high time for the Fed chair to do it. More »

Tax Expenditures Are a Form of Big Government, and We Should Cut Them

Tax Expenditures Are a Form of Big Government, and We Should Cut Them

S&P's downgrade underlines the need for U.S. lawmakers to come together to raise revenues. Let's reform the tax code by filling the holes in the cheese. More »

Our Real Deficit Problem Has Nothing to Do With Traditional Government

Our Real Deficit Problem Has Nothing to Do With Traditional Government

Social Security and Medicare should depend on how much risk we want to pool--not on whatever happens with everything else. More »

What Do You Mean, 'Government Is Too Big'?

What Do You Mean, 'Government Is Too Big'?

The idea that there is one thing called "government"--and that you can measure it by looking at total spending--makes no sense More »

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